Seduction | Switzerland

Playwright: Lukas Bärfuss

Translator: Neil Blackadder

Director: John Green

English Language Premiere

In Partnership with Goethe-Institut Chicago

Synopsis: Hauke is a con man who’s almost completed a six-year prison sentence. For much of that time, he’s been in therapy with Tania, whose task now is to help him reintegrate into society. She tells him that a woman called Sonja has come forward, claiming to be Hauke’s daughter. He agrees to meet her, and they hit it off. But is she really his daughter? Or is she motivated by the seven million that went missing? Who’s seducing whom? And just what role does Tania play in determining responsibility and what should happen next?

Neil Blackadder, Translator for Seduction

Neil Blackadder translates drama and prose from German and French. He has contributed many translations to IVP, including of plays by Lukas Bärfuss, Mishka Lavigne, and Ewald Palmetshofer that were later produced by theatres in Chicago, London, New York, and elsewhere. Neil has received grants from the NEA, PEN, and the Howard Foundation, and he’s Translations Editor for Another Chicago Magazine. In Spring 2023, Neil was Translator in Residence at Princeton University.

John Green, Director of Seduction

John C Green was born and educated in the United Kingdom, where he received his undergraduate degree Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) in Theatre and Education from the University of London, his Master of Arts (MA) in Theatre and Film from the University of North London, and his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from Plymouth University, where the focus of his research was on experimental actor training techniques in mid-20th Century Western theatre practice. He currently serves as an adjunct professor in theatre at Columbia College Chicago. His professional directing credits include four productions at the Edinburgh International Festival, and at international theatre festivals in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Slovenia, Russia and Australia. In the United States he has directed plays, musicals, opera, and created site-specific installations at Pittsburgh State University Kansas, Butler University Indianapolis, Columbia College Chicago, and Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. He has had a long association with the Indiana Repertory Theatre as guest director, and with Chicago’s International Voices Project. He has received a number of “Best Director” awards at festivals including: The London Student Drama Festival, The National Student Drama Festival of Great Britain, and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. In addition to directing, Green is the author of two books on theatre and performance and has made presentations of his research at numerous international conferences, most recently in Italy. He is delighted to be collaborating once again with Neil Blackadder and Kendra Thulin on a third play by Lukas Bärfuss for IVP.